New York’s First Congressional District changed shape a week ago in one of the more egregious examples of this year’s wave of political gerrymandering. Up until this month, the swing district had been more or less geographically uniform. But after the decennial redrawing, this time dominated by state Democrats, it has become odd indeed. Most of the East End remains in C.D. 1, but as of now it also probes west up the center of the Island. Picture a meat cleaver, its narrow handle following the Long Island Expressway to Farmingville. A Republican-dominated portion of Southampton Town gets carved off and joins the Second District. The makeover was signed by Gov. Kathy Hochul last Thursday and could yield three additional seats in November for Democrats and improve the odds of the party retaining control of the House of Representatives.
Based on the outcomes of previous elections, the historically toss-up district now favors Democrats to replace Representative Lee Zeldin, who chose to run for governor instead. The Trumpist Mr. Zeldin’s hope of gaining the top job in the Empire State is slim to none. But he must have also known that he was likely to get gerrymandered out of a job, and decided that if he were to run a doomed campaign it should at least be one with statewide visibility. Despite being among Congress’s outspoken promoters of the Big Lie about the outcome of the 2020 presidential election, he has not been able to get the kind of attention some of his fellow reality-resisters like Representatives Jim Jordan of Ohio and Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia. Among left-wing pundits, the bland Mr. Zeldin rarely merits a mention. Not good if he has ambitions to remain in public office.
If one has Democratic Party leanings, the change might seem like a good thing. It is part of a national strategy of both major parties to twist election maps to their advantage. Republicans in Texas and Florida have worked diligently to expand the number of seats in the House of Representative they can expect to control.
The First Congressional District is not the only revision by the Legislature to take on a new and bizarre shape. New York’s 10th, already cascading south along Manhattan’s West Side and then crossing into Brooklyn, now excludes an area around Central Park, then follows a serpentine path through Red Hook, Windsor Terrace, Borough Park, and Bensonhurst. The 3rd C.D. runs from Smithtown in Suffolk, along the North Shore of Long Island, and twists around western Long Island Sound all the way to Rye on the Connecticut state line. For Dems, the 16th is a thing of ingenious beauty, extending from the Bronx to Putnam Valley; by that measure, our C.D. 1 looks rationally drawn.
Though the respective sides might like gerrymandering during the periods that they hold all the cards, it is starkly undemocratic. Under our system of government, the people are supposed to choose their representatives when they vote. Partisan redistricting like that sweeping the nation following the 2020 census robs us all of our essential role in government.
A solution seems difficult to imagine. In 2019, the U.S. Supreme Court said that gerrymandering for partisan advantage could not be challenged in federal court, greenlighting the worst abuses. State courts have been hesitant to overrule legislative maps, leaving little room for correction. Barring a successful lawsuit by Republicans, New York’s First Congressional District will retain its partisan boundaries for the next decade — good news for Democratic candidates, bad news for democracy.